YPSILANTI – Three new coating technologies resulting in patents will streamline the coating process and reduce manufacturing costs within the automotive industry.

Dr. Jamil Baghdachi, a professor who specializes in polymers and coatings in the School of Engineering Technology at Eastern Michigan University has been named a co-inventor on three patents by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Baghdachi is one of three faculty members at the Coatings Research Institute at the University.

The patented technologies are the result of collaborative research between Baghdachi and engineers at the Toyota Technical Center, a division of Toyota Motor Engineering and Manufacturing North America.

"Toyota is proud to collaborate with Eastern Michigan for the advancement of coatings technologies," said Seiya Nakao, president, the Toyota Technical Center. “The real value of collaborative research projects like this and others is reinforcing our focus to drive new innovations and understandings that will benefit not just Toyota drivers but everyone on the road.”

The technologies, jointly owned by Toyota and Eastern Michigan University, relate to self-stratifying automotive coatings. More specifically, the patented technologies relate to coating formulations that self-stratify into, for example, a base layer and a top layer, which could streamline the coating process and reduce manufacturing costs. The technologies also control the location of pigments within self-stratifying or self-layering coating compositions.

“The aim of emerging technologies in coatings are to introduce sustainable multi-functional products, while improving the economy of the application,” said Baghdachi. “One-step processed coatings that separate into functional layers upon curing or drying can be regarded as a sustainable process that reduces hazardous materials emissions, conserves energy, and improves the economy of coating applications.”